Infringement of the European Convention on Human Rights by Belgium. CEPS Policy Brief No. 12, February 2002

Abstract

[Introduction]. The judgment in the case of Conka v. Belgium of 5 February 2002 by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg whereby Belgium was founded guilty of infringing the European Convention on Human Rights, has much wider implications than one might think on a first reading. This is not simply a condemnation of one member state (Belgium in this case), in isolation. Rather it is a message to all EU member states as well as the other signatories of the European Convention on Human Rights, that expulsion practices that are tantamount to refoulement are absolutely inadmissible. The ruling also calls upon European states to give deeper thought to the way in which they implement asylum procedures.